Navajo artist, teacher, and "Code Talker" Carl Gorman, whose encrypted use of his native language helped defeat Japan during World War II, died Thursday, January 29, 1998, of cancer. He was 90.

Carl died at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital shortly after midnight, hospital spokesperson Jennifer Dowling said.

He was mourned Thursday throughout the Navajo Nation and the art world. "Here was a man who has contributed tremendously to the country - the United States - and to the Navajo Nation, his people,"Navajo President Albert Hale said in Albuquerque. "We are very proud he has served in the Armed Forces and the Code Talkers."

Carl during 1982 festivities honoring the Code Talkers, said he and 28 other Navajos learned of their secret mission after completing boot camp in 1942.

"We never realized they were going to use our language as a code," he said. "Some of our comrades couldn't figure us out... Some of us looked like Japanese and when they saw us talking into the equipment, they thought we were talking Japanese. And we were doing secret work, so we couldn't even tell our buddies what we were doing."

The recruits ranging in age from 15 to 35, were inducted into the Marine Corps on May 4, 1942. Carl was in his 30s. Eventually, there were over 200 Code Talkers.

The Japanese never cracked the code hidden within the Navajo language. Bird names were used to identify aircraft, fish for ships. The original code included more than 200 terms and evolved to over 600.

"Many people ask me why I fought for my country when the government has treated us pretty bad." Carl said during the 1995 unveiling of a Code Talkers monument in Flagstaff, AZ. "But before the white man came to this country, this whole land was Indian country and we still think it's our land, so we fight for it. I was very proud to serve my country."

The monument was sculped by Carl's son, R.C. Gorman who visited his father in the hospital Sunday. After the war, Carl became known for his art and his lectures around the country about the Navajos. In the 1970s he taught art history and Indian history at the University of California, Davis, where the C.N. Gorman Museum was dedicated in 1973. The museum is planning a tribute, university spokeswoman Lisa Klionsky said Thursday.

Although Carl Gorman was not related to any of us in the California Genealogy Club we have included this biography to show that even though the Government of this great country hasn't treated the Native American's fairly and sometimes downright badly, there never has been a time when the Native Americans of this country have declined to serve this country in times of war. As Carl said the Native Americans of this country still consider it their country, and are proud to serve it.